That’s a bloddy good team.
And a smashing bench…
[quote=“farmerinthecity”]That’s a bloddy good team.
And a smashing bench…[/quote]
tis alrite and for the first time in a long time we are going in with no injury concerns or doubts hanging over fellas and everyone has got game time as well which is critical…i would say that they wont get it easy over in gloucester but will win by around 10 points something like 23-13…
What’s the semi final draw again?
Who are they likely to face?
Any chance of Foley starting ahead of Leamy. Agreed that Quinlan is a certainty to start. Didn’t realise Payne hadn’t played in that long. Big test for Hurley so.
Hurley has looked a classy player when I have seen him. Just looking at that possible team and they really do have a good side with a strong bench. If it were possible for Ireland to play Munster I’d fancy Munster to win.
[quote=“farmerinthecity”]What’s the semi final draw again?
Who are they likely to face?[/quote]
if they beat gloucester they would play the winners of the ospreys v saracens away…if the ospreys(would fancy them to beat saracens) win its on in the millenium stadium while if saracens win its on in coventry in the ricoh the end of april…
just look at the players that they have outside the 22…puciarello, fogarty, donnacha ryan, coughlan, ronan, john o sullivan, barry murphy, kieron lewis, keith earls there is fierce strength in depth there…its a shame that they(irfu) dont use connaught more as a development team as it would be good for a few of the lads to go up there for a season or 2 and get a decent bit of game time in the celtic league and the challenge cup,
Since when did Tomas O’Leary become a better scrum-half than Stringer folks?
Good young player is O’Leary. Big call from Kidney to put him in but he is in very good form and deserves his place just about I’d say. Both are better than Reddan imo.
Astonishing call from Kidney with O’Leary ahead of Stringer. Really not sure why Stringer has had such a fall from grace in recent months, don’t think his form or performances changed that much.
Not saying it’s a bad call because I haven’t seen that much of O’Leary this year but it is still very surprising. Bringing in Hurley and O’Leary blows his conservative reputation out of the water really. Heard Thornley on the radio last night saying that O’Leary was the most improved Irish player in the last 12 months. Hadn’t realised/noticed but if he’s improved at a better rate than Dowling then I’m impressed.
Should be a smashing game tomorrow.
That was some performance today. Miles better than anything Ireland have thrown together in recent years. Unbelievably low error count and ultimately that was the winning of the game - they simply didn’t make the sort of errors that Gloucester did. That’s not to say that there weren’t excellent scores. The two tries came from turnovers but both were excellently taken, the first in particular was superb at the end of a cracking spell.
Normally after-match interviews are meaningless affairs but O’Connell spoke very well when he talked about honesty of effort from 1-15. Every single player put in a big hit at one stage of the match and they all outplayed their opponent and showed for the ball more. The defence was incredible. The two centres looked porous earlier in the season but they put in massive hits today and stopped every midfield move dead in its tracks, often creating turnovers. So then Gloucester went wide but Howlett was always dangerous looking for intercepts and Dowling always picked the right man to spot and he did it superbly. Awesome defence in terms of planning and execution.
There were 5 or 6 lads who had sensational games - O’Connell, Quinlan, Tipoki, Dowling, Hurley, O’Leary off the top of my head. Thought Quinlan summed the whole thing up brilliantly near the end. Caught a restart got a bit giddy and made his only error of the game by kicking wildly. Gloucester had the ball for all of one phase before Quinland got into the ruck and turned it over back for Munster. He was absolutely epic today.
I’d give man of the match to Dowling though. As I said earlier his defence was flawless and he read every move perfectly. His running with the ball was brilliant though. He gets yards every single time he gets possession, not most of the time or 95% of the time but every single time. That’s invaluable. And it always comes back on the Munster side.
Kidney has coached himself into the Ireland job if he wants it now. Hurley and O’Leary were extremely brave but ultimately excellent choices. And the use of the props was just top class decision making. Give Buckley the start and then when the pressure was coming on bring on Pucciarello. That did two things instantly:
- it allowed Munster get a stronger scrum
- it told the referee: look we’ve made the instant change to address the problem so any scrum issues that you see now aren’t our fault. We’ve held our hands up and corrected the problem
And of course it was no surprise to see an injury later to allow Buckley back on. And he’d some game too.
Excellent performance from Munster. Although Patterson missed a few penalties I actually thought Munster probably deserved to win by more. They looked two or three levels better than Gloucester. The gameplan was well executed and the players looked very focused right from the start. Kidney should be offered the Ireland job immediately imo. Still have a slight worry that he won’t get it. I said earlier in the season that the Heineken Cup had lost a bit of its spark for me but I can’t recall enjoying a European Match so much. Well done Munster!
top class performance…it all came down to munsters ability to manage a game and decision making…no stupid mistakes or errors apart from mafi in the first minute…there wasnt a bad performance from any munster player with o connell and quinlan excellent in the pack…quinlans performance just shows the failings of the end of eddie o sullivans regime…9 to 15 were excellent…
looks like we are going to be playing saracens in coventry…great result for munster a much better draw rather them than going to cardiff with the ospreys full of confidence…
Far better result alright. Didn’t see the match Puke, what happened to Ospreys? Thought they’d have won handy enough.
Osprey’s were down and out with twenty minutes to go and they came back into it with a try. Were probably a little complacent and Saracens looked as though they wanted it far more. Osprey’s are better side and may have caused Munster more problems than Saracens will. I was up for Osprey’s though as an Osprey’s Munster semi final would have been great for the Magners League and a great spectacle in the Millenium Stadium.
Cheating a bit, copied and pasted my thoughts from AFR thread
Ust watched the game in full again, few additional points.
Dowling- Would have picked him as MOTM, in the build up to his try he carried the ball three times and cleared out a ruck before he scored, and hes a winger. He rushed up in defence and made several cruching spot tackles, one on lamb where he fliped hoim over and caused a turnover and penalty springs to mind. Could tour NZ in the summer if he can add a few more performances like that in the next couple of games. I still dont think hes international quality though.
Howlett- try in three games in a row now. He could have had a hat trick yesterday and would have deserved it for his workrate. He kicked off the counter attack under the posts that led to Dowlings try. His defence was great, he flipped Patterson over like a rag doll which led to another turnover. Think having Howlett in the team more than anything else has given munster the confidence to buy into the expansive gameplan.
Hurley- Three big hits, solid under the high ball, pace and streght, hes a big lad. Delighted for him he is supposed to be very nice guy.
Le Puc- Did a super 40 minute shift at loosehead. Scrum was in trouble when he came on and it was not an issue thereafter. Cute as a fox. His legacy will be Buckley/Darragh Hurley/Timmy Ryan and a few more. Supposed to be leaving at end of season but contacts tell me the work he is doing with the young props is outstanding. Munster or Ireland cannot afford to lose a resource like that. If Kidney gets the Irish job I wonder will Puc be involved in some role???
Hayes- Is this man getting better? He is getting the full 8- week in week out now, never seen him fitter I dont think and his scrummaging is outstanding…may be related to my point above.
Declan Kidney- I wil hate to see him go but if he doesnt get the top job it will be some disgrace. Made three big big calls yesterday (TOL/Hurley/leaving foley out) all were completely vindicated, did what EOS was loath to do and made a hard call and a big call to sub Mushy oin the half hour…it paid off in spades. I would guess this was the intention from the start, leave a bit of gas in the Mushy tank for the last 20 when his carrying might have been needed. He has taken a player with a history for on/off field violence in Tipoki and given him a vital role in the team, Tipoki appears to be relishing the respnsibility and showed great restraint in not knocking big Les block off early on when he got smashed after the whistle. He has pulled a player, Mafi, from NPC rugby and made him into what could be a HEC winner in 18 months, he has played NZ 7 otherwise Id say he would be in line to get capped for us, incidentelly Jason Holland is the man who sourced this lad. Kidney is comfortable surrounding himself with people he trusts and doesnt mind taking advice and delegating, all issues raised by Genesis in the pst WC report.
Im not sure Iv seen munster play with as much agression in the past, they were like men possessed from 1-15. They appear to be fitter than in the past, not sure what this is down to as one would imagine the WC would have taken a lot out of most of em but no. They turned ovewr 12 balls yesterday, off the top of my head Id say 6 of these at least were as a result of strong defence from the bakcs, Im not used to seeing that from a Munster team.
[quote=“therock67”]Kidney has coached himself into the Ireland job if he wants it now. Hurley and O’Leary were extremely brave but ultimately excellent choices. And the use of the props was just top class decision making. Give Buckley the start and then when the pressure was coming on bring on Pucciarello. That did two things instantly:
- it allowed Munster get a stronger scrum
- it told the referee: look we’ve made the instant change to address the problem so any scrum issues that you see now aren’t our fault. We’ve held our hands up and corrected the problem
And of course it was no surprise to see an injury later to allow Buckley back on. And he’d some game too.[/quote]
Rocko, some good analysis there. Point No 2 above is a very very good one, perception is truth and all that. Fact of matter is When Le Puc came on Munster were probably infringing far more in the scrum as he is some wily old fox!!! Buckley prob doesnt have the nous as yet to pull the stunts that lad would. As I said in other post I think it was intention from start to bring Buckley off at that point, his body language coming off was very positve not that of a lad after getting the shepards hook.
Yeah it was all about the perception Danny. As you say it didn’t matter what Freddi was doing in the scrum, the point was that Munster were seen to address the problem.
Don’t agree on Dowling though, I think he’s international quality. Bigged him up big time before the game so watched him closely and he was excellent throughout, as you agree. He’s a different sort of winger to Kearney or Fitzgerald obviously but as a gainline breaker and a strong runner I think he’s playing way better than Horgan at the moment (and all season).
horgan has been poor for a while now (if you asked me to pinpoint it Id say since the England game in croker). Just think Dowling doesnt have the pace necessary, your right about his ball carrying etc though it is top class and he does make ground when he gets his hands on it.
BUT…this is one argument id be quite happy to be proved wrong in!
To be honest id like to see him tried at 12 as he often operates as a reciever in this position anyway, ultimately Im not sure hed have the defensive discipline to play here either though.